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“I thought so,” Sage said, smiling.

“You know,” Ricky commented with a deep sigh, “I thought it would be really hard not to be with Mom over Christmas. Mom plus Gramps and Grandma. I wasn’t sure you even liked kids.”

That stung, not that she blamed Ricky. That was likely the impression she’d given him. “Do you feel that way now?”

He shook his head. “You’re an okay aunt.”

“Just okay?” she asked, lightly nudging his side with her elbow.

Ricky laughed. “Okay, you’re better than good. In fact, you’re a really good aunt.”

Impulsively, Sage hugged him until he squirmed to be set free.

This wasn’t how either of them had expected to spend Christmas. Plans change. Sometimes those changed plans turn out to be better than anything either of them could have expected.

Chapter Fifteen

Tuesday morning, when Sage dropped Ricky off at Lisa’s, he paused before racing into the house and turned back to her, leaning into the car to say, “Don’t forget you need to be here for the party at four-thirty.”

“I won’t forget,” she promised. Ricky was making sure she arrived on time. Sage assumed this had to do with the surprise he’d almost mentioned. This was more than a simple party, Sage realized. The children had worked hard at whatever it was.

When she arrived at the office, Erica was already at her desk. Before Ricky had come to stay with her, Sage had nearly always been the first one to arrive. In little more than three weeks, her nephew had changed her obsessive habit of being the first one in the office. Not so lately. She had a little boy in her life and he took priority.

Recently, the oddest thing happened. Sage found herself reading a recipe in a magazine. It sounded easy enough. She snapped a photo and had gotten the ingredients, curious to give it a try. That she would consider meal preparation on her own would shock anyone who knew her.

Despite the cookie incident, Ricky had boosted her confidence. Together they’d managed several halfway decent meals without Uber Eats or frozen dinners. Ricky enjoyed helping her create menus. He had helped his mother often enough to feel at ease in the kitchen.

“Be sure my schedule is free this afternoon,” Sage told her assistant, although she was sure Erica had already rescheduled any conflict.

“I’ve got you covered,” Erica reminded her.

“Ricky is excited about this party. He’d practically bounced out of bed this morning. I didn’t even need to wake him.”

“Breanna was eager, too. My guess is that Lisa is planning for the kids to give some sort of performance.”

“I suspect as much. She’s got the kids prepped for something special.”

Troy walked through the office and stopped cold when he saw Sage in her office. “What’s this I hear about you taking off early this afternoon?”

“I’m attending a party with my nephew.” That Troy would ask made her suspicious; she narrowed her eyes. “Do you have something planned I don’t know about?”

He smirked. “Guess you’ll need to wait and see.”

Sage waited until he was out of earshot. “I don’t trust him. Do what you can to find out if Troy is up to something.”

“Will do,” Erica said, looking as concerned as Sage did. “I don’t trust him, either. I noticed his team has been hard at work this last week. I heard a couple complaining about the added pressure put on them, especially this time of year.”

“The presentation to the Hudson Group isn’t due until after the first of the year,” Sage said, thinking out loud. She’d met with her team only once in the last week. They’d tossed around several ideas for a tagline for the soft drink. To this point, nothing had the zing she wanted. After the holidays, Sage was determined to make sure whatever her team came up with would be above and beyond anything Troy and his team suggested.

—

Because Sage was leaving the office early, something that was almost unheard of, she decided to work through lunch. She ordered a sandwich from Jimmy John’s and was nibbling on that as she reviewed the marketing plan for the Hudson project. If Troy was pulling a fast one on her, she wanted to be prepared.

She was deep in thought when she glanced up to find Ethan standing in her doorway. They’d talked only briefly since their dinner Saturday night. They’d passed each other in the hallway at one point and shared a smile that affected her nearly as much as his kisses had.

“How’s your day going?” he asked, smiling at her in a way that caused everything she’d been concentrating on to fly out of her mind.

All she seemed capable of doing was staring at him.